MoKan Reefer
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- Jun 7, 2018
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Back last Friday 5/10, I was woke up to a small river going through our livingroom thanks to our makeshift 5'x2'x2' 150 finally springing a seam leak. Unfortunately my wife and I figured it would happen sooner or later but with funds, we were hoping for later. Fortunately it was a fairly slow leak and I caught it before it got worse.
These are pics taken the day before the leak:
Well, by the end of the day, I had moved all the coral and the top pieces of live rock to a 7' long poly trough:
And the livestock I was forced to leave in the tank in about 9" of water. Both having circulation from a couple Jebao pumps.
That day as I was scrambling to figure out how to keep everything alive, I was able to get ahold of a long time friend who owns an aquarium store 2 and a half hours away. Thankfully he was willing to work with me in taking our Radions, Kessil H380, and a few odds and ends in trade for a new tank! A life saver!!!
So we take the trip, and find a custom 180 gallon drilled for closed loop with dart gold, oceans motions 4way, he even hooked us up with a brand new stand, custom 48"x16"x18" 60 gallon glass sump and older beast of a reef octopus extreme 200 skimmer!
Tank pic from the store:
My wife and I stuffed everything minus the stand stuffed into our suburban. The stand we strapped to the roof (really wish I'd have thought to get pics of that!). Thankfully my wife is awesome and loves this hobby almost as much as I do lol.
Anyway, we finally got home around 1am and got my neighbor to help unload the tank and began to get to work on plumbing this beast!
The top 2 are the overflows which have small inky type boxes inside the tank at the top and feed the sump.
The other 4 are returns for the closed loop.
Unfortunately had to wait for lowes to open to get what it didn't come with that night but the next day, bright and early, I got up and took the trip to grab up what I needed and got to work.
The original owners had just run a couple lines up the back in the center for return from the sump but I wanted to use the sea swirls I'd used on the 150 so I plumbed the lines up over the top and around to each side for them being fed by our old trusted mag 18
This tank was originally drilled with center internal overflow and had holes for two 1 1/2" bulkheads and two 1" bulkheads. I'd originally planned to use the 1 1/2" bulkheads for to pull the water for the closed loop but they were too close together to plumb it the way I'd needed to so I used the 1" bulkheads and got it plumbed finally.
Finally got to start filling it with water on Sunday evening only to find out one of the middle bulkheads leaked and the threads were stripped right at the point it tightens to the glass. So I started looking through the metric ton of excess plumbing supplies I have from the last decade plus and found a replacement bulkhead but still lacked a bushing to take the line from the 1 1/2" bulkhead and elbow to the 1" line coming from the pump and OF COURSE it was 9pm and the department stores were closed!
Well, Monday finally hit and I of course had to work. Once I got off, I immediately hit up lowes and got back to work finishing up.
Finally a full 3 days after our tank started leaking with coral still in the trough behind our couch in our livingroom (amazing understanding wife!) and the livestock being stuck in 9" of water, I finally got the tank running leak free!!! Whew!
Thankfully I had enough brute trash cans and had been running rodi and making saltwater since Friday afternoon. I filled what I needed to with fresh saltwater and emptied the trough and tank of as much water as possible from the old tank and started loading the rock, then coral and livestock!!!
Monday evening after finally getting everything moved in (water is obviously still foggy:
Thankfully the only casualty was a single skunk cleaner shrimp.
Tuesday it finally cleared up but hadn't figured out how to hang the light. Used 2 2x4s to lift it off the tank.
Wednesday I got to start washing and cleaning all the sand (that was a chore!!!) Not going to put it all back in I don't think. Just enough for the wrasses and conches and not going to do it quickly to avoid any possible big cycle. Also finally hung the lights with 2 2x4s and the hanging bracket from the 150.
After having to trade off our radions, kessil refugium light and whatnot we're back to using our old ReefBreeders Photon 48 V1 and a Walmart grow light but honestly, the light has the spread and power we need for the 72" tank and everything is still alive and kicking so I can't complain at all!
Anyway, sorry this was so long. Hopefully not too many lost interest by now lol. Figured I'd share the new build and experience of the last 7days!
Thanks for reading and happy reefing!
These are pics taken the day before the leak:
Well, by the end of the day, I had moved all the coral and the top pieces of live rock to a 7' long poly trough:
And the livestock I was forced to leave in the tank in about 9" of water. Both having circulation from a couple Jebao pumps.
That day as I was scrambling to figure out how to keep everything alive, I was able to get ahold of a long time friend who owns an aquarium store 2 and a half hours away. Thankfully he was willing to work with me in taking our Radions, Kessil H380, and a few odds and ends in trade for a new tank! A life saver!!!
So we take the trip, and find a custom 180 gallon drilled for closed loop with dart gold, oceans motions 4way, he even hooked us up with a brand new stand, custom 48"x16"x18" 60 gallon glass sump and older beast of a reef octopus extreme 200 skimmer!
Tank pic from the store:
My wife and I stuffed everything minus the stand stuffed into our suburban. The stand we strapped to the roof (really wish I'd have thought to get pics of that!). Thankfully my wife is awesome and loves this hobby almost as much as I do lol.
Anyway, we finally got home around 1am and got my neighbor to help unload the tank and began to get to work on plumbing this beast!
The top 2 are the overflows which have small inky type boxes inside the tank at the top and feed the sump.
The other 4 are returns for the closed loop.
Unfortunately had to wait for lowes to open to get what it didn't come with that night but the next day, bright and early, I got up and took the trip to grab up what I needed and got to work.
The original owners had just run a couple lines up the back in the center for return from the sump but I wanted to use the sea swirls I'd used on the 150 so I plumbed the lines up over the top and around to each side for them being fed by our old trusted mag 18
This tank was originally drilled with center internal overflow and had holes for two 1 1/2" bulkheads and two 1" bulkheads. I'd originally planned to use the 1 1/2" bulkheads for to pull the water for the closed loop but they were too close together to plumb it the way I'd needed to so I used the 1" bulkheads and got it plumbed finally.
Finally got to start filling it with water on Sunday evening only to find out one of the middle bulkheads leaked and the threads were stripped right at the point it tightens to the glass. So I started looking through the metric ton of excess plumbing supplies I have from the last decade plus and found a replacement bulkhead but still lacked a bushing to take the line from the 1 1/2" bulkhead and elbow to the 1" line coming from the pump and OF COURSE it was 9pm and the department stores were closed!
Well, Monday finally hit and I of course had to work. Once I got off, I immediately hit up lowes and got back to work finishing up.
Finally a full 3 days after our tank started leaking with coral still in the trough behind our couch in our livingroom (amazing understanding wife!) and the livestock being stuck in 9" of water, I finally got the tank running leak free!!! Whew!
Thankfully I had enough brute trash cans and had been running rodi and making saltwater since Friday afternoon. I filled what I needed to with fresh saltwater and emptied the trough and tank of as much water as possible from the old tank and started loading the rock, then coral and livestock!!!
Monday evening after finally getting everything moved in (water is obviously still foggy:
Thankfully the only casualty was a single skunk cleaner shrimp.
Tuesday it finally cleared up but hadn't figured out how to hang the light. Used 2 2x4s to lift it off the tank.
Wednesday I got to start washing and cleaning all the sand (that was a chore!!!) Not going to put it all back in I don't think. Just enough for the wrasses and conches and not going to do it quickly to avoid any possible big cycle. Also finally hung the lights with 2 2x4s and the hanging bracket from the 150.
After having to trade off our radions, kessil refugium light and whatnot we're back to using our old ReefBreeders Photon 48 V1 and a Walmart grow light but honestly, the light has the spread and power we need for the 72" tank and everything is still alive and kicking so I can't complain at all!
Anyway, sorry this was so long. Hopefully not too many lost interest by now lol. Figured I'd share the new build and experience of the last 7days!
Thanks for reading and happy reefing!
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